Several of the new chickens are looking ever closer to being ready to start laying, so I took a little time this morning to finish off the nesting boxes.

Firstly I added shelf liner and plastic nesting pads to the sloping bottoms of the nesting boxes (see this previous post on the construction of the boxes), along with fake wooden eggs to test the rolling, and act as a guide to the girls:

Merida and Domino peeking out the front window from the roost above the nesting boxes:

Here’s the view from outside, showing the collection area. I used shelf liner for the screen too; not ideal, being semi-transparent, but it’ll do. There is also a foam bumper at the front edge, which isn’t visible in this picture:

I also added floral curtains that Jenn provided to the box entrances, mounted on curtain rods and tied open. In addition to looking nice, it’ll give the chickens a bit more privacy and dark, two things they like when laying:

Here are some closer looks inside a box: